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Thursday, October 3, 2013

Oxford on the Blue Development Could Be Boon for SKC

By Paul Thompson

Ten years ago, the 350-acre South Kansas City property now
slated to become the Oxford on the Blue mixed-use development project was
surrounded by blight.

Options for the parcel were limited and uninspiring. The
land, located north of 87th Street between I-49 and I-435, rested in
a sort of development purgatory. But in the years since, momentum has slowly
built throughout South Kansas City.

In 2006, Cerner acquired the former Marion Laboratories
complex off 71 Highway (now I-49), where they built their South Kansas City
location. In 2010, the KCMO police department broke ground on their new $28
million South Patrol headquarters off Bannister and Marion Park Drive. Cerner
recently announced plans to build a massive new complex at the site of the
former Bannister Mall. And now Whitney Kerr Sr., a 56-year veteran of the real
estate business (and broker with Cassidy Turley) who helped bring the Corporate
Woods complex to life, has compiled land for the Stowers family to develop
hundreds of acres at the Oxford on the Blue site.

“There were a lot of negatives out here. All of a sudden,
all these things changed,” said Kerr last week. “I think the potential of this
area, with the infrastructure out there, is incredible.”
Kansas City 6th district councilman John Sharp
agrees.

“I’m tremendously excited about the Oxford on the Blue project, because
this has the potential to bring thousands of good-paying jobs to southeast
Kansas City,” said Sharp. “This shows how a major investment in an area often
serves as a catalyst for even more development.”

The possibility for greater transportation options in the
area also remains an alluring draw for the developers of the site. The parcel
is located near the light rail train route that’s been proposed by County
Executive Mike Sanders, and Kerr remains bullish on the opportunity to bring
back one of the city’s trademark modes of transportation: the passenger
streetcar.

At one point, according to Kerr, Kansas City had 75 miles of
cable cars which preceded San Francisco’s famous trolley system. Kerr thinks
that the public would benefit if the downtown streetcar plan, which will
connect Union Station to the River Market (and garnered a $20 million federal
TIGER grant this summer), could be extended along its original route to the
newly announced developments in South Kansas City. Councilman Sharp added that some at City Hall are already
pursuing the idea.

“Council members from the 4th, 5th,
and 6th districts have all provided sales tax funding to study the
expansion of the Country Club streetcar line,” said Sharp. “Having developments
at this (Oxford on the Blue) site certainly makes it much more important to
extend the streetcar lines to serve them.”

That original trolley route was converted to the Trolley
Track Trail, a six-mile walking and biking path that connects the South Kansas
City Waldo and Brookside areas to UMKC’s campus, thanks to the Rails-to-Trails
program created by Congress in 1983. But as is happening downtown, the trails
could still be re-purposed back to their original intent in the future.

Even without the transportation hubs in the area, there is
significant buzz in South Kansas City. Kerr says that the developers for the
Oxford on the Blue site will work to get the zoning altered on the parcel from
Rural-Agriculture to an Urban Renewal District, in order to incentivize
business activity in the area. The developer will also be applying for PIEA
(Planned Industrial Expansion Authority) tax abatements to help get the project
off the ground. Early plans for the site have encouraged city officials.
“I
think everyone at City Hall who is familiar with the project is very excited
about it,” said Sharp. “It’s been described to me as a high-tech office park
which would also have support retail, and likely have on-site housing as an
additional element.”

Kerr says that development at the Oxford on the Blue site
will help drive the economy in South Kansas City, ultimately providing well-paying
jobs and attracting viable homeowners to neighborhoods surrounding the site. “I
think it’s going to be a wonderful thing for them,” Kerr said.

Of course, Kerr acknowledged that there are still issues
that could arise as the project prepares to go to City Hall in the coming
months. Chiefly, the strength of the economy remains an important factor for any
development to proceed as planned.
“Anybody who’s involved in major capital
investments is affected by the cost of money,” said Kerr. “Probably the biggest
concern that the private sector has is the health of the economy.”

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